Ace's Adventure

Half way round

evans_ace — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:23:00 GMT

Iguazu falls was the next stop, lying on the border of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. The falls are visible from the Arg and brazil. We decided on just seeing the Arg side as we had heard from most people that it is better and we were running out of time and keen for some beach time before London. So after a fairly long bus due to a road accident we found ourselves in the Park walking towards the devils throat, the first water fall on our agender. Walking along the metal walkway over the river system, it was very Jurassic park like, people passing us the other way were soaking wet...where were we heading.....On arrival we came to what I can only describe as a hole in the earth. It was like the old cartoons where you see a character pull the plug out of the bottom of the ocean, as a mile wide river system drained over the falls into an almost complete circle of falls about 60 m wide. Masses of water, 000's of tonnes every second explode into the abyss sending huge plumes of spray that then fall like a heavy rain every couple of minutes. So we got soaked like everyone else and took some sick photo's. The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering the rest of the park and the 200+ other waterfalls. Packed into such a concentrated area of rainforest, I am told by the boys it looks alot like Avatar which I havent seen yet. (at least they didnt quote a twilight their other favourite films). A highlight was the platform at the base of a 50m wide fall, a spot where you could definately feel the power of the place. It was an epic spot, as you can probably tell by my description where I have just realised I have likened it to 2 fantasy movies and a cartoon.

That evening we crossed the boarder via taxi after our first arranged van broke down. The bastards at the hostel didnt help much either despite it being organised through them. A bad review on hostel world coming there way I think. Anyway it took 40 minutes to cross the border, dropping us at the bus station to get another overnight bus to florianopolis. It was here at the station we bid farewell to JK as he was off to the UK to attend to some family matters. But he would be back in 5 days time to meet back up with us. On arrival in florianopolis we found a hostel over looking a lake like lagoon, and just 5 mins walk from Priar Mole a beach at the bottom of the hill. It really was a beautiful spot and the next 6 days were spent in a pretty similar fashion, but it was a satisfying routine all the same. Visiting priar Mole once or twice a day to surf and watching the world cup (NZ, Brazil and Eng games especially) occupied our days. With the cold nights spent keeping warm with cheap brazillian vodka, usually ending up at the local clubs in the area. Highlights of the nights were the shapes cut by myself and Stonnell in VIP, and the inability of Scaz to remain in the club or make it out at all with the vodka getting the best of him.....Thorny wasnt far behind. One night of the Brazil game we had a druggy come through our room in the hostel. Unfortunately they zonned in on Thornys locker and bag. But fortunately the owners knew who it was and his glasses were returned. Thank god he didnt take the whole bag as passport would have been gone too. It worked out in the end. It definately was a good time down at the beach with a fun beach break, and I did my best to give as much grief as I could to the Brazzo's in the surf. Payback for the crap they try and pull at every spot they visit outside brazil and in NZ. (dale you would have been proud). JK arrived back in town in time to join the boys in me beating them in poker, not without a bit of cotraversey at the end. We had done our time in Florianopolis and it was time to move on too the next spot, Rio de Janiero.

So as always it was another afternoon night bus to RIo. We arrived a little dissappointed to our hostel Mellow Yellow, especially after the hype about the place. We were in a dorm with 25 beds, stacked 3 bunks high. Couldnt complain about the location though. We arrived at ten thirty and in 30 mins Brazil were playing Portugal. We walked the 4 mins to the Copacobana beach where there was a huge set up for the world cup. With Two massive screens set up, one in the closed Fifa Fan zone and the other open to everyone on the beach over 200,000 brazillians are on the beach for each game. It took me back to vancouver and the olympics. With the patriotism, passion and love they have for their team and the game was much like the canadians for hockey. Ofcourse there were a few obvious differences namely the half naked girls in thongs and the lack of snow. So we pilled in with the rest of the crowd and got our beers from the venders and settled in for the match. Being a 1-1 draw however it was a bit of a non event (im an expert on football now you see). The rest of the afternoon we sharpened our body surfing skills in the dumpers on Copacobana beach under the blue skies and bikinis.

That early evening we were on a tour to see christ the redeemer on the top of the hill over looking the city. So after a too long of a tour by the tool of a hostel manager, we found ourselves at the feet of christ as the sun went down over Rio. Now perhaps you could have an ipifany, confess your sins and become catholic, but its a bit hard with the 00's of tourists all clambering over the same small viewing platform trying to get their cringe photo's with the big man. So you end up getting caught up in the hype and snapping photos of the view and the 70ft statue. But even still it is definately an inspiring place when you do find the time to take in the gandure of the location and the committment to carve a statue like that. It does raise a few questions and make you think, ofcourse that is in between laughing at thorny snapping a photo of scaz sucking the statue off haha, culture boys. You couldnt come to Rio and not see it however it is awesome.

Our first night we had planned to go to the Lapa street party as organised with the hostel. A place where you can party on the street of the district and the many bars and clubs in the area. It is said to be a bit dangerous so we were careful to a point, not taking anything too valuable. So we got on the bandwagon at the hostel and soon after were being dropped in Lapa. Unfortunately the boys were split early on by a couple of stray dogs. There are many around the town, some are viscious with rabbies. So we had to split Fred and I going one way the others the other. I hear they had a good night visiting the Lapa steps (in snoop dogs video) and catching up with a few english terriers they knew from back home. Freddie and I on the other hand had a different fate. After a dabble on the streets and hitting a club we were back outside, where I managed to catch the hand of a young kid, probably 12, trying to steal the camera of a girl we were with.He did a runner after the surprise of being caught. It probably should have eneded there. However I had have a few and I followed the little prick with the idea of teaching him a lesson or two. I found him with 4 other 12 year olds and 3 or so teenage girls. I stood as tall as christ the redeemer and I thought I could help these lost souls find the light...I couldnt.

Like a reincarnation of Jake the muss the 12 yea old I first encountered picked up a large beer bottle, smashed it on the curb and came at me with the broken bottle. At the same time the girls attacked, one lunging and breaking my gold necklace (prob should have take that off)...but luckily it stayed on somehow. Anyway needless to say I backed up faster than tiger woods, to avoid the bottle and any further lunges at my neck. When I saw two 20 something blokes come out of the crowd (they work in gangs). It was time to bail, I turned and ran putting my Jason Bourne hat and dissappearing into the crowd. Nothing was lost and I remained glassless so it was a win in the end. Freddie however got done by the same gang not long after, only getting 6 reals off him however. It was a headlock mugging combo they got him with, despite his self proclaimed UFC skills. We called it a night soon after and found the safety of the Hostel. With many stories from other tourists being heard from that night also. Probably not worth the effort in the end, pretty eye opening seeing a 12 year old go to those lengths.(thought I would tell you this once I had left South America mum :|).

Next day we beached it up and that night got severly spoilt by a colleague of JK's dad who took us out to dinner. We went to this place called Marius, which was an extremely plush an amazing seafood buffet, if you could call it a buffet as most is delivered to you. Amazing sashimi, oysters, shrimp, scampi, lobster, calamari.....the list could go on and on, ending with prime rib eye carved onto your plate. It was truely epic and the body and taste buds thanked us for sure. Pretty sure the toilets in the place would be some of the top ten toilets of the world aswell, seen to be believed. I was dragged into the womens by a drunk 50 year old american women, was nice of her. The company was great and the host generous. This dinner was followed by some drinks at a friends then off to this huge club by the marina. Driven there by a personal driver in a bullet proof armoured car, the driver having driven hillary clinton he was all business. We arrived at the club, cover paid and realised it was the place to be with all sorts of prime cuts strutting across the floor of the huge marque. The music and people were awesome and at 4am we stumbled out to our driver who had been waiting outside in the car for us....vip....no big deal.

Next day we hit a market at impanema and enjoyed the sunset over there. That night sam and I backed up, with the young boys unable to keep up and we hit the flavela party. The flavela's are the areas of Rio where the poor and lower socio communities live, mostly in squaller conditions the people suffer poor health and crime is rife. It is the area where alot of the Rio crime and gangs spring from, the clustered shack cities on the hills. You would stay away from these areas however the tours and parties that visit are arranged with the gangs that run them. So we went along with about 100 other backpackers on the sunday night. We arrived to the massive warehouse club. It was a fun night spent with alot of other travellers (who are hearded into a vip area). Whilst also taking pilgrimages into the locals down below for a dance. The brazillian dance moves are pretty out of control, with alot of the guys taking their shirts off and dancing synchronized like some organised performance, think step it up. We didnt partake in that. The girls however have a pretty fun dacing technique too. Very provocative and dirty, but when half of them turn out to be hookers it is a bit hit and miss depending what you are into. Next day sam and I hit the white sand beach of copacabana again, into the fifa fan zone for another brazil game. This time they had a big win and the brazillians sparked up and danced the afternoon away. We met some cool locals who we enjoined the festivities with. That night at the hostel was more of a blokes night however and we did what I think many other blokes do when drunk in RIo, and saw some more of the locals.

Learning again that you can have too much of a good thing it was time to move on. We shipped up and caught a rather amusing taxi ride (with the driver as high as a kite), then a boat to Ilha Grande, the island paradise 2-3 hours south of Rio. This island is covered in dense rain forest and flanked by pristine white beaches. There are no cars and bugger all buildings. We stayed in a hostel in the busiest of the bays, which had several accomodation options and a small town. There are alot of boats cruising the island and the clear blue warm water is made for swimming and watersports, with one surf beach on the other side I was looking foward to the next week there. First day we resisted the ocean side party in favour of a night to recover, as there was a boat party organised for the next day....what can you do. So at midday the next day we were on a 2 storey open deck boat with about 80 other travellers watching dolphins under the clear blue skies. Soon the bar tenders were turning out the all you can drink caprihinas and the bbq was being cooked. It was an amazing day full of swimming, diving, snorkling and partying till the sun went down. Unfortunately Thorny had a bit of a bad spill when a back flip went wrong and he ended up re-chipping some repaired teeth and sporting a couple of swollen lips. But cant deny how much of a good day it was, definately one to be remembered.

The next day we went over to Lopez Mendez the ocean beach on the other side of the island. I caught the boat, a beautiful 40 minute ride on a nice old schooner. The boys decided to walk 3 hours hung over...I was pretty happy with my decision and after a 15 min walk from being dropped off, seeing a couple of monkeys on the way I arrived at the beach. It had the finest sand I had ever seen, squeaking loudly under our feet. I paddled out in the fun surf, the water clear and amazing, the waves small and fun. It was a great relaxing day. That night we ordered 5 of the biggest pizzas I have ever seen, it was man vs food, and way more than we needed the left overs being destroyed in the hostel fridge to the boys dismay. The rest of the time on the island was spent in more relaxation, I unfortunately caught a bit of the flu so I pushed myself into a few naps to try and overcome it. I had one more surf day at Lopez Mendez, probably wasnt the best idea when not feeling the best but it was the last surf I would have for a while. So 6 days after we arrived it was time to get another boat and another bus to Sao Paulo to meet our flight the next day to Germany and bid the english boys farewell as they were off to BA for 10 days.

We made the journey, and had a night and morning in Sao Paulo, I would have liked to have more time there as it looked like a nice city. But it was Time to move on, we had seen the gems of south America, been robbed and met some life long friends had too many hang overs but just as many surfs. It was a action packed 3 months, and the 2 before that were amazing too. We were about to be about half way on our trip, perhaps, we dont know where we go from here. But made sure we were on that flight, frankfurt for two days then london. But First a few facts from our travels so far:

In total we have done

45 hours flying an average of 14 flights 3.5 hours long

234 hours on buses an average of 31 bus trips 7 hours long, the longest being 26 hours

24 hours by car an average of 6 car trips 4 hours long

and 16 hours by train, 4 trips at 4 hours long

So there was a total 319 hours of travel being 13 days 7 Hours and 12 minutes. A long haul in any ones book, this was for a trip that lasted 175 days from Auckland to London, we have visited 13 countries on the way. Staying in around 50 different beds.

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SO, we hopped on our plane leaving South America to Europe. The Germany soccer team injecting a bit more excitement into our trip with their performance against argentina, meaning we could watch them play Spain in the semi finals in Frankfurt. The flight was ok, valium made it bareable with a few hours sleep. I watched a movie and a half. I was sitting between a brazillian pilot and the brazillian version of nan and pop, with good battle for the arm rest ensuing with the old bird, just like it would with Pierriette. But we got there and were surprised by the warmth when arriving to the airport. We caught the train to town and found a hostel, nestled in the bottom of town, between two sex shops. It was a good location, also, because it was a short stroll up the road to the centre of town. We spent the days, walking the streets, checking out the sights, old and new architecture, having a few german beers and of course a brotwurst or two. We hit a few shops continuing to restock our wardrobe also. We thought brazil was expensive, and it was compared to bolivia and peru. But the euro and the pound were going to take a bit of getting used to with the exchange rate going the other way again, will try not to dwell on it though. So we had two sunny days in frankfurt, I was surprised at how late it got dark, twas to be the same in london about 1030pm. In south america we were used to about 6pm. On game day, we had organised to go with a lovely young girl from the hostel and her sister to watch it at frankfurt stadium with about 15,000 other Germans. It was an awesome atmosphere, we had our facepaint on and backing the germans. Unfortunately it wasnt meant to be, they lost and we were with a drunken disgruntled crowd back to the trains. The night could have been very different should they have won. So we got to bed and the next day we had a flight to london at 1030 am. We arrived to a driver holding my name up, no big deal (haha cheers nick). Soon we were in southfields looking at our new home for the next month or so. It was good to see big bro and catch up on everything, with too many stories to tell and alot to catch up on. Hearing his tales from home in Whiti i got a little home sick. However that night we went out to dinner at what was to be an amazing restaurant, Nick definately welcoming us to London in style. We kinda blobbed out the first few days as we had been on the go for so long and it was nice to throw the anchor down and sit on the couch and watch a few movies. We did catch up with Horse and my cousin Simon for a saturday night out in London. Hitting the pubs in Covent garden and then the walkabout it was a very funny night.

We were pretty overwhelmed at the contrast from South America to europe, used to seeing Flavela type settlements and poor 3rd world type settlements surrounding cities, here we were seeing BMW's, Mercedes, ferraris and Lamboughinis whilst seeing some of the flashest hotels and apartments in the world. Something tells us we will be needing to update our wardrobe more still for this change and find some more money in the near future. It was a huge change to get used to. We had days of sun at riverside cafes, at the park and at BBQ's for our first 4 or so days, London in all its glory I imagine. Yesterday we paid the £25 and did the bus tour, after days of sun we managed to chose a dreary rainy cloudy day for the tour. However we had enough visibility to see all the sights, big ben, the abby, tour of london, buckingham palace...all the usual stuff. It is all very fascinating, the tour informative on all the history. However much like classics and history at school my attention span isnt the best with these sorts of things so after the highlights and the facts we found ourselves ditching the tour for a pub lunch. What can I say. We ticked all the boxes though, realising were were actually pretty close to it all in the dark on saturday night. I am usually good with my bearings, but strugging to get them in the monster that is London. Everything is so spread out and you travel by tube so you often dont see where you are heading, there are bugger all hills or land marks aswell so that also makes it difficult. However with the bus trip and a few maps I am getting a rough idea.

So where to from here...it looks like we will stay here annoy nick and take in a bit of London for the next few weeks. My birthday coming up this saturday (incase you forgot), so we will be organising a night out for that. But the next step is look for some work on boats in the med, we have no visa for London so are limited here. We will however try to get a good idea of London though as it wouldnt be too hard to whip home to get a visa if we wanted to. There are also alot of people we know in london so we want to catch up and spend time with them also. Inevitably we will probably head france and spain way in August maybe for a surf trip then on to get in the super yacht game. Till then we need to get off the couch and see a bit of the UK also.

So there it is, we are now half way, we have had an amazing time and still have so much more ahead of us. I look foward to catching up with those of you who are Europe bound as I know there are a few planning trips. For the rest, I will keep you up to date on our Euro trip as it progresses.

Till then....

Love Ace xx

Busy Busy Busy

evans_ace — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 09:00:00 GMT

We arrived from combapata to Puno on the shores of lake titicaca the highest lake in the world. With the hagglers providing their usual help we found ourselves in a hostel for the night with a tour to the floating reed islands sheduled for the the next day. These floating reed islands house a whole comunity and were the way of life for the natives of the area. They are formed by cutting into the root structure of the reeds carving huge chunks of boyant floatable soil and roots, usuallly 10m x 10m. They then tie several of these together as the foundation for the island, placing thousands of reeds on top, the result was impressive seeing this whole town 6 km from shore, I half expected to see kevin cosner from waterworld in his catamaran. It was a clear crisp day and we spent 3 hours visiting these families and learning of their way of life. Buying some local gimics on our way as they rely heavily on tourism to sustain their way of life. They also have trout farms on some of the islands which was cool, and they tasted good that night too. Felt a little like home in whitianga to be honest especially when we met the leader of the island, he was somewhat like the mayor of Arawa lane.

After the tour back in Puno we found a bus to take us to Copacabana our first stop in Bolivia. Also on lake titicaca the 3 hour bus trip was broken up by a short boat ride across the lake with the passengers on one boat we watches our bus sail by on a very dodgy looking barge. In Copacabana we met up with our friends the canadian lesbians and had a few vinos planning to hit isla de sol (island of the sun the next day for a hike seeing ruins and views of the lake. However our laziness was aided in the morning by the bank only opening at 830 at the same time as the ferry so we scrapped the idea and climbed the hill next to the town for a spectacular view of the island and the lake in the clouds. The walk up and down was rougher than we thought too due to the altitude we were definately gasing. That afternoon we jumped on a bus to La Paz 3 hours away. On arrival to this monster city in the mountains we checked into the irish party hostel the wild rover, the home of good food and beer. The first night, friday we met 3 young english lads Freddie, Rich and Joe. After a few drinking games (press ups and tell her) we were well on our way and found that apart from their haircuts these guys were full of life and laughs, we would go on travelling with them for the remainder of our trip and become good mates. This first night however we rinsed ourselves in beers, shots, bars and then the fairtytale of la paz route 36. Day two was chore day and organising our next two weeks we laid down a very busy schedule including a prison, the death road, a pampas tour and the salt flats. Saturday night was then given a nudge as saturdays deserve.

The next day we were in San Pedro prison.....

Some of you maybe familiar with the place, for those that arent I recommend reading ´Marching Powder´. In a nutshellit is a prison that through corruption and lack of regulation has managed to a normal societal structure with self governance and heirarchy. The wealth of the prisoner determines their living condition, with the ritzy aparments to buy and on the other side the slums. Children and wives are free to come and go free to roam the prison.There are bar and restaurant set ups, but for the majority, overcrowding and squaller plauge their lives of these poor souls and gangs, fights and muder are normal. Tours of the prison started when english speaking prisoners seized the opportunity to make life more bearable and easier with a new income stream, apart from the cocaine business. The prison is a big player in the cocaine manufacture and distribution in bolivia., Often with the help of gaurds and police tonnes escape the prison walls per year, money definately talks in La Paz. The prison tours arent legal and have been on and off recently due to too much publicity and internal conflic about who should profit from them. Numbers of ´guides´ (eng speaking prisoners) are passed from backpacker to backpacker, word of mouth ensuring a steady stream of visitors pass through the gates. We co-ordinated our tour with an aussie couple and the lads. Soon we found ourselves being ushered through the gates past the gaurds who get their cut from the operation. We had our visitor stamp (make sure that doesnt rub off) and were wandering the yard...shitting ourselves. However after meeting 4 or so of the prisoners and entering one of the richer prisoners cell (with 3 rooms, kitchen, wives, kids, flat screen the lot) we felt fairly safe. It was very sureal and didnt at all feel like a prison. The first prison we sat with was a dip shit South African who got caught smuggling 14 kilos of coke at the bolivian airport. He was serving 8 years, and is a former crack addict (most prisoners are or have been), a pretty sad story. In the next room when we joined our other friendswe met the big dogs. From a mexican drug cartel and a notorious gang they were drug traffickers and murderers amoung other things. They run the show and were incredibly open in talking about life in and outside the walls of the prison. I was in awe of some of the stories and their friendly approach, they had a head on their shoulders and were all business. To keep the conversation rolling and perhaps the main income earner for them, they have a ready supply of fake prisoner cards, dvds, Johnny walker whiskey ,, cigarettes, marijuana, cocaine and even key rings for the visitors. The 3 hours of chat is followed by a short tour of the wealthy area. I could go on and on about the stories and what it was like, however that is probably best suited over a cold beer. But needless to say it was a very unique life experience and one that wont be forgotten for a while.

As if we hadnt had enough danger entering a prison illegally the next day we had the death road. Zead and the 3 lads joined us to mountain bike the road with a tour group. Around 25 people have died on the road as part of the bike tours alone. A narrow dirt and stone road flanked by cliffs on either side, you have a wall on one side and a 200m drop on the other. Starting high in the alps you work your way down to the lower jungle terrain. It is an amazing ride, but truth be told unless you are stupid, narcoleptic or israeli (first and last tourists to die were) you arent at too much risk. It was an awesome day in the clouds andmist, with most the danger coming when boys being boys we pushed eachother to go faster and faster, racing in a pack. With Freddie and JK taking the wipe out awards for the day, sorry JK.

Right back in La Paz the next thing on the list was the 3 day pampas tour, the wetlands in the amazon basin. It was a perfect chance to perfect my david attenborough impresonation, but in the excitment it was more irwinesque. Against advice we caught an 18 hour bus to Rurrenbaque as opposed to flying, with the wallet in mind. Bad call. The road was horrendous and fucking dangerous with the wheel of the bus often on 30cm away from a huge cliff drop. And to top it off our bus broke down in the night, with 4 stops to fix it we eventually had to wait 4 hours for another in a small remote town. the trip took 24 hours and we missed our tour the next day. However with chins up a night was spent with Pizza and wine, and we were off the next day. Sam, Zead and I also booked a flight in 4 days after the tour. We learnt our lesson. After a 3 hour jeep ride into the jungle, with 2 flat tyres....what luck...we arrive to the river and jumped into a long boat. We all got excited at the sight of our first turtle. However after an hour we relised turtle sightings are shithouse. Over the three days we saw over 1000s of black cayman crocs (4-5m) and alligators. We swam up to some, chased some and tried to poke some with a stick. We went on a hunt for annocondas in the swamp, our wellys (gumboots) filling with mud and water, success came in the form of a 2.5 m anaconda for the photo. We swam with pink dolphins, went fishing for and became member of the pirahna club (exception of Zead who couldnt catch a cold). I started slow but ended up with 3 pirahna to my name. We spent nights at a cool lodge set up on the river with good sunsets, expensive beers and an occasional game of bums. I loved the experience and it was so cool to see such an abundance of wild life in such a concentrated area. We headed back to Rurrenbaque, for more pizza and wine, before our plane in the morning. At 11am we had already arrived in la paz before the 3 lads got on the bus. I felt for them for about 5 mins. Then enjoyed the flight ;). That night we let La Paz get us as it always does. Starting with the Cholitas wrestling where we saw women fight women, men fight woman (felt like once were warriors), and a midget fight a giant. The last of which was so funny but slightly disturbing at the same time. to see such a little man being kicked and thrown. It was crazy and the local kids and families were loving it. After the night 18 hours later the lads arrived from the bus, and then we got home from our night out. We had a kip then it was time for a night bus to Uyni to do our salt flats tour. We arrived at 6am and it was freezing, our jandals and shorts not enough. So it was a quick trip to the market to get leggings and trackies, hats and socks. At midday we were off in the land cruiser to the salt flats via the train graveyard. The flat white surface of the plains stretch to the horizon, remnants of a former lake or sea...couldnt tell you as our guide spoke no english. Anyway driving along the white surface to me it felt like I was in a boat on a white sea, as islands pop up here and there and it is flat like a calm day on the gulf. We visited an island for an amazing pnoramic view, whick if it was water looked like the bay of islands. Then it was onto the salt to take the cringe photos. The flat white plain and the horizon allows some interesting and funny perspective shots. Sam, I and the lads having a good laugh in the process. That night we spent in a hostel made of salt. The temperature plummeted and we froze our ass off. Either side of dinner we were fairly anti social as we huddled in bed listening to music to keep warm, well if you can call the shit freddie and rich like music.

The next day we drove and drove, over mountains, through valleys into desert. It had the feel of middle earth, we came to a series of lagoons, some ice covered, they were thermal and had sulphur and mineral island, where the flamingos rested. It got a litlle repetitive, seen one lagoon you have seen them all, but some good music and winning the throwing comp made it bareable.That night we froze again especially after a few wines when we wanted to star gaze. It was freezing but it was also the brightest sky I have ever seen, thought prevoking and entrepreneurial I felt pretty small standing in the middle of the cold bolivian desert. Next morning it was up at 5am for another bread breakfast, froze, then it was of to a Rotorua like thermal area,geysers, mud pools, steam and that smell. But in true bolivian fashion there were no regulations or roped of areas so we were free to explore and give in to the life long desire othat men have to chuck rocks in stuff. Next stop at 9am we stripped off and hit the thermal pool, some entering more gracefully than others with JK slipping and fall in slicing his toe in the process. After wetting my hair in 3-4 mins my hair (and maybe a bit of my kick ass beard) were friozen solid with the water turning to ice. It weas cold. Ah back to when we booked, we had two options to loop round and end up back u in Uyni or, get dropped in chillie at the bottom of the loop. After counsel with the 5 chiefs (no indians, you should see us order a feed) we chose the former and BOOM another country was added to the itinerary. a short while later we found ourselves in a hostel in a warmer San Pedro, Chile. It was goodbye to the rediculously cheap accom and food of Bolivia and hello to the inflated chilean prices. San Pedro was a more touristy town the gateway to the desert and san boarding from the chilean side. We stayed here three nights, watched the lads squirm when Eng drew to the US. We also went sandboarding. Equiped with snowboards and our soon tired legs and lungs(it was the altitude I swear).we Boarded down and hiked up that dune several timmes. There were some spectacular bails that ensured sand remained in the nether regions of the body for days. It was great fun and topped off nicely with a pisco while watching the sunset at Luna valley. Also in san perdro the peer pressure and infectious enthuisiasm of the boys got the best of me and I found myself with a rediculous haircut (cleanly shaven also).after a session with the clippers. There was a touch up trim the next days and it was acceptable (to me anyway, sorry dad). Chile was ticked off the list and we got on a 10 daqy bus to salta, Argentina, arriving late on a Sunday. We hunted for a hostel that didnt exist but found somewhere, then failed to ignite a night out. The next day we took the gondola up the hill to over look the city. That afternoon in the beautiful square, one heiniken turned into 6 bottles of Argentinian red and followed by a mix up with argentinas finest, the biggest steak of my life, 670 grams, a porky´s like stripo club(average though)(and a helping hand from the hostel staff. Iguazu argentina is the next stop. 22 hours by but, but it is cama (business class) so should be bareable. well it is actually very nice thats where I am writing this now. I even got motivated to go for a run before we embarcked to cleanse myself and blow of the cobwebs, i lasted about 25 minutes and cant blame the altitude this time. Looks like Nick can keep the Quins number 10 jersey till i get fit again. After iguazu 2 weeks surfing ain brazil should help. Cant wait to be at the beach. Till I am there and you get the next update, before london, keep safe.

Love Ace x

ps didnt have time or energy to edit...was ave computer so i know there are a few mistakes.

Karma

evans_ace — Sun, 30 May 2010 07:29:00 GMT

Well it has been too long since the last update, heaps to fill you in on…good and bad so here goes.

We left Medellin columbia and bid farewell to our friends we met there. It was then two flights to arrive in Quito Ecuador. We then jumped on this shuttle to get to the bus station. That was an experience, it was rush hour, it was jam packed full of locals, and here is us with our bags and boards trying to negotiate the masses. They all staring at us like we were aliens, ecuadorians are typically very short also that I was used to though as it felt a lot like a duthie family reunion.

We then hit the bus station where we booked a bus to manta, I saw this lone guy with a board and had a yarn to him. He was a german by the name of lars, and he decided to tag along with us. Which was good it was another spanish speaking friend we could leech off haha. It was an eight hour trip to the town of manta. We arrived and lars and I ditch the bags in a hotel, thorny was a bit tired so he crashed. We went grabbed our boards and went to a small tuna fishing village called san mateo, where there is an epic left hander. Unfortunately the waves were very small, but we got wet anyway. The set up had so much potential. We headed back to manta, realising it was a shit hole, we negotiated a small rate for the room we didn’t use, and got on a bus to head down the coast. It is a beautiful stretch of coast with nice beaches, and the swell was bigger around the corner. We stopped for a night somewhere, had an average surf. But the next stop Las Tunas was awesome. We had an cool hostel set up right on the beach, with great rooms and I could wake up sit up, look out the window and see the waves. We had three or four days here with fun beach break waves. We also found this epic little restaurant with massive portions, and good seafood. A plate of wahoo or calimari and chips rice and a salad, which would give swashies a run for its money costs around $4-5 US.

From here we headed to the town of montinita, I was really looking forward to this place, home to a right hand point break and a good party scene it was heaven for an all too long sober, natural footer like myself. We arrived and decided not to stay in the bustling hub and get a place down by the point, another wake up and look at the surf joby it was a good set up. 500m down the beach was the town, sorta just plonked on the beachfront. With a few main roads with bars restaurants and the like, the main road to the beach had cocktail alley, where you could warm up with all sorts of cocktails sold from stalls on the street. The surf got really good, a 150m long right hander. We had fun nights out with lars before he left, and then more with mike who we met in columbia. It is sort of a sureal place, there are heaps of stray dogs and you see them rooting all over the show. One time right out infront of the restaurant where we were eating we got the whole show…I never knew dogs get stuck together when the job is done. Apartently the males penis swells and they cant separate, they were stuck like that for 20 minutes. The poor bastard was pretty sore afterward and limped a few feet before licking himself better. I met a cool argentian chick who I hung out with a bit, so that was fun till the last night where too many cocktails led me to making a bit of a mess of the situation, ah well live and learn.

The next stop was Mancora, Peru another 8 hours down the coast. We stayed at the loki hostel there, there are a chain of these throughout south america, they are big, and more of a party hostel. This one in Mancora was a monster, looking like a 5 star resort. However with not much else in the town it ends up being a bit like a prison. You wouldn’t know you were in peru as you eat burgers speak english everywhere and basically never leave as it is all too easy fun and comfortable in the hostel. I had one fun little surf on the left point reefy thing out front. Had two good nights out, the black and white party was fun, face paint included. I got pretty sick for the last day and night which sucked. Aparently there was a bit of a stomache bug around, mike got it too.

We escaped the madness of mancora, to Labitos which is basically the polar opposite. The place used to have a lot going on there due to a large US army base that was built there. Howver they left, Perus army took it over, then they sorta just let it go to shit. There is nothing in the town, 2 restaurants that sell either chicken/fish and rice which gets old quick. We stayed in old army barraks which has been converted into a surf camp, it is run down, structurally unsound, and they have these tents set up on the top floor. It is pretty cool really, never seen anything like it. But definitely a change to where we had come from. There is a sick set up for surfing with a point, pier and piscinas. But unfortunately we didn’t score it too epic as the sand wasn’t in the right place and the swell small. I was still feeling kinda average here about 60% as my stomache was a bit unpset and eating nothing but bread for breakfast and not much else available didn’t help.

Then the shit hit the fan. We left lobitos on a overnight 8 hour bus trip, took our sleeping pills and arrived to pacas mayo at 530am, feeling tired and drowsey we just wanted to get to our hostel. We got offered a lift by these two young motor taxi drivers. They were friendly and helpful. 2 minutes later, I we had no bags anymore, thorny no surfboard, me no camera passport. As we went round a corner one ran off the back with one of our bags, thorny chased, I got out to see what was goiung on and the driver took off, I chased, grabbed my board off roof but that was it. We had nothing, it was dark cold and I guess we were scared, angry, confused. Anyway with help from some local people and some new friends, who were surfers and could speak spanish we got the message to the cops but they did fuck all really. Anyway the next three days were spent talking to cops, home to org a new passport and cards, looking into insurance, buying new clothes and all that. After those three days were were kinda over it and looking to put it behind us. Luckily old huey stepped in and sent a solid 4-6 foot swell up the coast. We had this for 3 days and I have never seen waves like it, we were up at 5am each morning to walk out the point, the waves break along this for about 1.5 km. I had the longest waves of my life, you can do 15 turns, rest on the wave, and do some more till your legs are jelly it was epic. During this time our story appeared in the paper. We got a good response with the local rich, godfather type figuremeeting us and taking us to the chief of police, this started a weird chain of events, with us going on a raid with some detectives and trying to identify suspects, but nothing came of it. When the surf started dying it was time to go so we went with our friend dave and georgie on a bus 8 hours to lima, spent 6 hours there chilling and went to the movies…robin hood….it was cool. Then we had a 23 hour bus trip to cusco.

Coming from sea level up to the height of cusco it was hard to breath, especially as our hostel was at the top of these outrageous steps. We had a night out here, and checked out the city, it was pretty beautiful with nice buildings and a good plaza…u know all the boring stuff. The reason for being here is to get to machu pichu which we booked, and had a 4 day 3 night tour set up with our new friends, dallas, koli, Zead, Ang, and adi. We left at 7am 2 hours up to the top of this mountain where we then biked 4 hours down through the clouds, it was fast and cold over rivers, along cliffs, onto dirt road and then to our first stop Santa Maria, we watched the English boys play footy against the locals. Had a couple then it was an early night for the 6am start the next day. Day 2 was a big trek out of town, along the river, up into the hills, via the monkey house with the weird hamster wombat hybrid then to a portion of the inca trail. This was amazing, the path and steps are teetering on the edge of the cliff, and it is pretty awe inspiring to think that the incas used these to travel huge distances, between countries. It was then down to this little place for lunch, spag bog. After that me and thorny and the eng boys jumped on a van to get to the next place. The trek was along the road from there so didn’t mind too much going by car. It gave me a chance to sit next to the cross on the hill and have a beer while watching the sunset. That night our guide opened up a bit and prompted us into getting on the piss, that along with Hayden and leah a couple we met on the trek, and tequila led to a series of events including line out lifts, rafter dancing, broken sinks, some stomaches being emptied and a sore head for the 7am start and trek the next day. This trek was along an awesome valley, with a big river, waterfalls, bridges and a glimpse of machu pichu on the hill at the end before getting into agua caliente, the town at machu pichu. This town is deep in the mountains in the middle of nowhere, But it has everything from flash 5 star hotels to cheap hostels. So Machu Pichu is open all day, however Wayna Pichu the mountain just next to it, that you want to get up for the view of machu pichu has limits. Only 400 people can go up there, on a first in first served basis. So you have to get up early to make sure you are in with a chance. We left at 4am, climbed the 1700 steps, I was going for it setting a good pace. Ideally you want to be 199^th person and get there just before it opened. However I got a bit competitive and ended up there buggered but 4^th in line and had to wait an hour in the dark and cold to get my stamp and get in. Ah well, it meant I saw the sunrise. Our first walk through the ruins and there was this eery mist, it was pretty cool and it didn’t seem real, we climbed more up wayna pichu, on some steep dodgy stairs through a cave and once at the summit we saw the breath taking view of the ruins and mountains. From up there you get a true feel for where you areand how special the place is. It took 100 years to build the town of machu pichu, considering the location it was an incredible feat and the inca history and way of life was ahead of its time. We had a tour of the ruins next and learnt heaps about the inca culture and machu pichu, kings, pumas, snakes, condors, human sacrifice, alpacas….its all there. After that Dallas the aussie dragged me unwillingly all over the mountain to the inca bridge and up to the sun gate, for more to see adding another 2 hours of hiking about though, pretty buggered by now. It was time to head down and I don’t know why but we got supped motivated and ran down the steep steps all 1700 of them. It should take about an hour, we did it in 18 minuts, even beating one of the buses down the hill. We definitely earnt our coke and pizza at the bottom, then became stiff and sore. We had an awesome group for the tour with some good laughs. After a train, van and bus ride we were back in cusco and had a big sleep. Next night we toasted the trip in the appropriate manner with our tour group and hit the town for cheap rum and cokes, bad dancing and a good time. Next day I watched movies.

Sam and I bid farewell to the team, as I had a date with my new passport coming up. But we will see them further down the track in Bolivia. We got a ride to the town of Combapata, where dave and julies uncle Don is a priest. It is to him we got sent my new passport and cards. Don is a kiwi but has been a priest in south America for 32 years. He has an amazing commitment and duty to the people of the area, I have never met someone like him before, and I have loads of respect and awe for what he does. There was a great kindhearted bunch of people staying there who we joined at meal times and we had a good laugh that broke through the language barrier.

Don took us out with him on some of his missions, we soon realized that he is a bit of a dag and we had some good laughs, he also has the energy of a man below his years. We were invited by don to go up to a highland village at 630 the next day. So there we were heading up the worst rocky road I have seen in my life in the back of a 22 year old land cruiser crossing rivers and climbing mountains.to a height of about 4800m above sea level. I now know why athletes train at high altitude. Up here in thois baron landscape there is a school and a small village. The people partly rely on world vision and the church to survive. The faith that these people have is extrodinary. We joined the community for the service Don provided, the church was packed. We were then we were given a meal, whole fried fish, rice and salad, I loved it. But needless to say sams fish found a way to swim onto my plate where it was welcomed and dispatched. We were a bit of a novelty here as I am guessing we were the first tourists to the are, and Don was a rockstar. The whole town followed us as we walked out to the car, and I shook about 30 kids hands before I could get in the car. The whole experience really opened my eyes and made me realize what I had kinda started to feel AR (after robbery). Which was that you don’t need much to be happy and live a good life, there is a lot being wasted out there. Don’t worry Dad despite my longer hair and beard I am not a hippy yet. It was then a 2 hour sore bummed journey back to town. After tea, soup, rice and spuds (dons favourite). Sam and I decided to pull our weight and help out, so infront of an audience of 150 school kids and 30 adults who found it very amusing, we went about chopping wood which is to be used to fuel the fire they cook for the masses over. OK so I haven’t done too much wood chopping, neither had sam so there was definitely a bit of a learning curve. Luckily the people couldn’t speak English as there were more than a few expletives being yelled as we came within inches of cutting our legs off. Late that afternoon we rested, and I was getting a little nervous as to whether my passport would ever arrive. The sun went down, and we had been in Peru too long. But low and behold at 6pm don hurried in excitedly with two packages, 1 passport and 2 cards later I was back in the game. Thank you ASB, internal affars and mum and dad. We could now get moving to Bolivia and continue the Journey. The next day we got a bus bid farewell to Father Don with many thanks, and that’s where I am writing this now (well on paper not online) on our way to Puno on the shores of lake Titicaca. We will hit the floating islands, then Copacabana, then to La Paz. Outside the bus window it looks like the Otago highlands, except alpaca not sheep and I am relieved that life can move one properly AR.

Until next time.

Ace x

Olla

evans_ace — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 06:13:00 GMT

Hello all,

Well since the last update from cali, we have definately been thrown out of our comfort zone. We had a long flight from LAX over to miami and then down to Costa Rica. This took about 8 hours with a stop over. On arrival we wheeled and dealed our way into a nice little toyota Yaris rental which was a tight squeeze with all our boards and luggage.It was pretty stressful working out how and where we were going driving on the other side of the road with spanish signs and little to no road rules, we wound our way through the rainforest and came up to the small dirty beach town called Jaco (pronounced Haco as we learned), and over the hill to the gem that is hermosa. A stretch of beach with a headland and rainforest to the sand, there are lots of little cabinas (hotel/backpacker set ups) which offer accomodation i the $15-20 a night range. They are all right on the beach and it was an epic set up. We found a place for the night and I whipped out for a quick surf with light fading and discovered that the water was like a hot bath my cold water wax from San Diego melting off. The waves at hermosa are steep and real fast and heavy. In the morning it is glassy and you race closeouts and get smoked, in the avo after the sea breeze dies down it is more crumbly and super fun. We had to leave the place we were staying at, and found ourselves moving with our new friend Jarrod from San Diego to a place to properties down. This was a former hotel set up, a beautiful house but the owner a lady from South Carolina who had lived there 14 years, with her daughter Sydney. She stil allows people to stay from time to time and it was a great vibe being hosted there. We had a great routine of surfing and pooling topped off by a few beers and a tuna dinner. The surf was good in the 3-4 ft range the whole time. We optimistically booked a fishing trip, but you get what you pay for with things like this and hence we were left waiting at the dock for an hour for the skipper, the Penn and shimano reels they promoted were 20 years old. The skipper spoke no english so it was a day in the sun, but hey fish dont descriminate so we were in with a chance, hunting for mahi mahi and tuna, but to no avail, we came home empty handed. It was really nice out there and cool to see some manta rays jumping. One night Jarrods rental car got broken into our was right next to it so we were lucky although we didn´t have anything seen throught the window so no temptation.

Easter was mental in costa rica, with people from all over the country coming to the beach town to party. It was a cool time, and we even had a visit from the easter bunny. There was also a park to the south which was a rain forest, I think we probably went there on the busiest day of the year with all the locals at the beach. We went into the jungle spotted sloths, monkeys, vultures, racoons and some cool as beaches. After 5-6 days in hermosa we went to the north to a place in the mountains called monteverde, we had to take the poor toyota yaris over the worst roads I have ever seen in my life, but it was worth it. We made this detour on our trip to do to this xtreme canopy tour. This was awesome with all these platforms up in the rainforest, between the platforms are cables which you clip onto and you zoom along over, in, between and under the trees, some distances up to 1km, they also had a tarzan swing which was shit scary, it was real cool and something that I wish we could have done back at old toad hall in coatesville.

We continued the treck over the mine field roads to tamarindo, north of hermosa. This is a cool beach town with some great surf nearby, river mouths, reefs and beachies, we had three nights here and sampled some fun surf at all. Playa grande was a sweet beach and we got some good waves to ourselves out there. We found this sweet italian restaurant where you can pick and mix what you want in your pasta and they make it up for you. We headed back down to San Jose and hopped on a plane to Bogota Columbia, we added this into our trip as we had heard such good things from the people who have been there. We wanted to allow for just over a week to check some highlights and after some helpful advice settled on Bogota and Medellin. We went to the Cranky croc hostel in bogota, on the first day we took a bike tour around the city, 5 hours later we had become a lot more comfortable with the city, people and the time we were going to have in columbia. With Dad putting the shits up me about this place and how we need to be super careful (i know it´s cos you love me dad). From what we saw however if you are not stupid and be a little smart there are no issues. You might get gringoed (ripped off) a couple of times especially when you spanish is as good as ours (shithouse), other than we hear of the odd mugging here and there but the bad wrap or perception that columbia has is unjustified. We met an awesome goup of people in the hostel, some brits, aussies and yanks we had an epic crew and we had some cool nights out, to a club on the 41st floor, some local bars and the Zona Rosa (flash part of town). The weather in Bogota wasn´t too conjusive to doing much, as it rained most days just after 12 for the afternoon. So after a few museums we checked out, the police museum with the Pablo Escobar exhibit and the Botero art museum we pretty much found ourselves sheltering from the rain in the warmth of the hostel with our new friends, drinking beers and talking shit, some great laughs were had. We were sad to leave Bogota and could have easily stayed longer, but we needed to get out of the city and see the otherside of columbia. The place is great the people and culture were cool, we found ourselves partnering up with friends who could speak spanish to get by and had a great time. We were heading to the land of the second most famous export of columbia the coffee region. We went to a town called Solento, this was a quaint little town, with lots of cool little couloured biuldings, where the church and square are the focal point with tourists and locals alike all venturing there to its many coffee shops, stores and restaurants. They have some great scenery with hills and rivers, we went on an impromptue hike with this chick we met after a local (who spoke about nothing but sex). We got lead to the river had a swim and hiked out, in jandals i added another few cuts and scrapes to my already weathered feet. They have alot of Truchas (trout) and I had a great meal which was yum. We had a good quiet few days checked out the coffee plantation and then it was three buses to get to Medellin a town famous for its women and partying. We arrived here to the Casa Kiwi hostel in the zona rosa district and again met an awesome crew. Good people travel in columbia, we really havent done too much in the day here apart from checking out the city, and malls. There are alot of attractive women, and fake boobs and if you can believe it bum implants are very popular. We had a crazy night out when a local who is mates with our dutch friend took us to this bar in the suburbs, you will see the photos, but there was all sorts of people dressed up in crazy costumes, midgets, life size dolls with phalases for all to see and we had 12 gringos with a 2.5 litre bottle of rum. It was fun. But this is again another city, very nice but we have got in the same party cycle with our new friends so we have booked flights to go to Ecuador tomorrow. Where we will arrive in Quito and bus to Manta where there are some good waves, I cant wait to get back to the beach.

So yea there is another update, sorry if there are mistakes I am fully hungover and not sure why I started writing this today. Tried putting photos up but computer is shit so will try again soon.

Love Ace

I could live in San Diego

evans_ace — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 05:08:00 GMT

Goodbye San Diego

It is a sad day as we prepare to leave San Diego, as we pack from scratch, say our last good byes, do our washing, relive the memories as we put up our photo’s and write this journal. We have had an amazing time here, it is a beautiful city with beautiful people. I am not just talking about the bikini clad spring breakers either. The group of people who we have had the pleasure of staying and hanging out with have all been fantastic, we have had some great laughs and will definitely miss the crew, namely Matt, Pat, Jenni and Chaz…you made this time epic. Especially Matt with his generosity in hosting us, showing us around his home town, giving me a few waves and putting up with our cooking. You are welcome to call on me wherever mate.

We have had an awesome routine while being here in SD, days of waking up to 2 coffee’s, cranking Modern Collective (surf vid with best soundtrack), going surfing, lunch, going surfing again. Then every few days we would do something out there like the following:

The Flow rider: Standing wave, hard to get the hang of but so fun and enjoy the beers and the sun afterwards.

The tour of the midway aircraft carrier, Matts dad is a guide and gave me and Thorny the works on a private tour, making watching Top Gun again all that more special.

The San Diego zoo, getting sooo tired walking around to see animals sleeping, pretty sure they lie about having a kiwi in the dark room, but the panther, turantula and panda’s were cool.

Sailing on Matt’s family boat around the harbour was a cool day. And the bbq we had with his family at their Coronado home. Epic ribs thanks Cathy.

The surf trip to blacks with pat was cool, got some sweet peaks and the trek in was awesome.

The Beach day with the whole gang at windansea with a chilly of beers, boards and babes.

Playing frisbee golf, and almost beating Pat...lost by one damn it.

We also had some fun nights out in Downtown San Diego and Pacific beach, they were all fun especially when Phill Hall was around, there were some funny stories and great laughs.

This place, even though we were here in winter/spring had blue skies temps in the mid 20’s. The homes along the cliffs and beach suburbs are epic and it is definitely a place I could live. The Navy presence is huge with all sorts of fuel burning contraptions flying and zooming around, aswell and the Jar head navy boys. There was this one surf one evening where the waves were glassy and fun, I was out with thorny pat and Matt, and I saw all of the following out there: 3 mates, 40 Pelicans diving, 2-3 Pods of dolphins, a seal, 15 civilian planes/choppers, 4 navy choppers, some fish jumping, an epic sunset….and then I walked 5 mins back to Matts apartment. It is a pretty magical place and I am sure I will return one day, and look forward to hosting my friends from here if they are ever in NZ or wherever I may settle.

But for now I need to get back to Packing, I am half way thru, I will finish putting my photo’s up shortly and then we are heading downtown to get the train to LAX where we have a long flight via Florida to Costa Rica. There we will make our way to the coast first Hermosa, to surf, see the jungle, learn Spanish, and take in a new culture. 8 Days there then to Columbia. Will update when I can…..

Love Ace

California Dreams

evans_ace — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:18:00 GMT

So there we were heading back to Vancouver and to the home of meaks who was generous to lend us his fold out couches for the last 4 days of our time in Canada. Once again we got caught up in the Olympic Hype and found ourselves in the Irish house and all over downtown Van for 3 days. We went to watch the Vancouver Rowers play rugby and had beers with the boys after. They are a good bunch of guys and we had a good night out. Their club room is one of the Top ten in the world and it is spectacular, right in the heart of the city on Stanley park on the Marina, you can see it in the Photo’s I have uploaded. The next day was the gold medal Olympic hockey game. We got up late and headed straight to the local marina to hop on a large boat to watch it with around 200 people. It was an amazing time with a boat full of mostly Canadians and they went nuts with the exciting conclusion to the game. We partied on the boat from 12 – 5ish then went walk about around the city which was mental, hundreds and thousands of people filled the streets and bars all high on Canada and I must have given a thousand high fives and shouted Go Canada till my throat was raw (I was allowed to yell this due to me being ¼ Canadian you see). We had one quiet night and then it was to Vegas….

Never again will we turn up to an airport without pre booked flights. But that is what we did at Las Vegas domestic and 4 hours later we were on a plane and about $250 out of pocket and heading to San Francisco. Once again we walked up steps from the subway in SF at night with no accommodation organized and no idea where we were. It has happened a fair few times to us already and it is a weird feeling. Back in NZ I generally have a pretty good compass, but when you arrive to a concrete jungle and don’t know where the water is it is a weird feeling. However it always works itself out, and we find the nearest internet connection and a few calls and a walk later we have somewhere to sleep. Just don’t panic, I don’t know where I got that ability from definitely not the old man haha. So we had a hostel for the three nights in San Fran and a crazy room mate called Reggie Evans, we was a middle aged stereotypical negro with a big moustache and the humour and attitude of Chris Rock, we laughed a lot. I think he was stoned for the 72 hours we knew him. The next day we went to go on this free tour run by the hostel. Little did we know it was being run by the classic old University History Lecturer and was about the history of San Fran, after the first two blocks and two stops about the Catholic History of the City we acted on our instincts and cut off down and alley to see what we came here for, seals, the bridge, the rock and maybe some bars/girls….if we had time. That is what we did we went to fishermans warfe and saw the seals on the docks and had a mint lunch. We booked in for the ferry to Alcatraz the next day and then Hired bikes and competed with all the Fixies and road bikes in cycling the waterfront and then across the Golden Gate Bridge. That was epic and I don’t know why they don’t have lane for that on Auckland’s bridge. Either way we went back to the hostel scouted out the nearest and best club to go to and we were set for a night out. Thinking we would save a bit of money we got a bottle of Bacardi 151 to have a few pre drinks before we headed out. This stuff is one step down from meths I believe and is totally flammable. As such the next two hours were a blur but the club was epic and we had a good night. We instantly regretted booking the 1030 ferry to Alcatraz the next morning but got up packed (as we were moving rooms) and got the bus down to the warfe. It was cool seeing the rock, it was a brutal place and had a lot more history than just being a prison and a place for the best movie ever to be filmed on. It was mostly an Audio tour which was cool. We chilled that night did some admin, washing and booked a Grey hound to san luis Obispo (SLO) for the next day. Had a great thai meal and tried to sleep sober.

We were meeting Matt in SLO, it is a university town, the one Matt went to and he assured us it would show us a good time. Sam and I had a night there first and on Matts Recommendation we discovered the tri tip sandwich, this is the best food known to man and consists of bbq roasted beef carved and placed in a crisp roll with their home made bbq sauce, it was amazing. We chilled that night but did discover gum alley which is an alley where the walls are lined with peoples chewing gum and there is so much of it you cant see the wall to about 15 feet up the wall….gross and impressive at the same time. Matt arrived early the next morning and we went about seeing the scenery and surf spots around SLO, it looked like perfect great white territory but with green rolling hills it reminded me of NZ. The day wasn’t too cold but when we finally did get wet in 2-3 ft 35 knot conditions we froze our nuts off, the Cali coast water is cold no matter what the air temp.

We had another tri tip then hit the local pubs, Tuesday is Pint night and they have $1 pints which is pretty awesome. We had some fun with some college kids and some not so college kids. The next day we headed off down the coast, first Santa Barbara, and Rincon, there was no surf at either but it was cool to see the spots I had heard about and see the beach life. We then went to Phil’s house (dads mate) in the Granada hills in LA. He said he would put us up for the night and it was a great night with good food, drinks and company. Us boys crashed in the RV which I thought was rocking, not due to the alcohol but the fact that the interior was very boat like, very comfortable. The next morning we passed through holywood and in our excitement in seeing the boulevard, we didn’t look behind us when entering. This lead us on a 45 min wild goose chase in trying to find the sign….we eventually found it where we started and sick of the LA madness pushed on through to San Diego. We checked out the area near matts and the surf spots. It is an Idyllic set up with mansions and palms lining the beach and cliffs, beach and reef set ups everywhere and a generally good vibe, the days are very warm (20-28 degress), the water still cold and I could Definitely live here. It is good to have our feet on the ground for a while at Matts who is generously letting us stay at his Pad 5 mins from the beach, and I am going to try and surf every day we are here. I have had some sick waves head high to a few feet overhead on the reefs fun, beachies and it is epic. We have had some good nights out in Pacific Beach (where we are staying) and a night in Downtown. They have a few bars called the bareback (where our friend bron used to work). It is a kiwi themed burger restaurant and bar, quite funny seeing their take on us but they love us and it is always a good time there. Yesterday we took on the flow rider which is the standing wave, powered by jets of water being shot at a concrete mould. I am generally good at all board spots but this sucked hard, it was real fun but so hard to master, I will give it one more shot but its rough. Our bail videos will be up in no time.

For the next week plus we will enjoy the mint weather of SD and surf, go to the ‘Midway’ aircraft carrier, the famous SD zoo, take in St Paddy’s (today) and the Spring break festivities (mental) and maybe go sailing. Today we have booked flights for our next leg which wasn’t planned but we will be hitting up Costa Rica for a week or so before continuing to Colombia. But for now I am loving the first bit of routine in what has been a hectic time. Living the life.

Talk soon.

Love Ace

Hot in the Cold

evans_ace — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:31:00 GMT

So after the north shore we popped back down to waikiki where we had another fun night out and then proceeded to chill out in the sheraton pool and have a quiet night preparing for what we knew would be a hectic few days. This relaxation period combined with a nice out of season swell on the south shore which was a bonus, 2-4 foot on the fun reef set ups out the front. Where from the weeks of surfing in boardies the moles on my stomache finally gave in and were worn off and bleeding on the walk back to the hotel.

We got the shuttle to honolulu airport and thorny and I were seated either side of a semi attractive outgoing 40 year old canadian woman who was a good laugh. We watched a movie, the notebook of all things (its still a movie about lots of swans and a slut). We thought that the flight was 10 hours so after the movie we thought we would pop a lazy sleeping pill to sleep the last 7 hours or so. Unfortunately we had the pill and a half asses dozzy sleep to be woken 3 hours later with the plane decending. It was a 5 hour flight. So through Vancouver airport we were sooo drowzy and tired it was a nightmare especially when we got grilled by customs. It was 530 am and we got coffee and a train to our back packers. On arrival at 7am our timing was impecable as the Olympic flame was being run past the backpackers in like 2 mins. We ran with our cameras in hand and watched Wayne Gretzkys dad run the flam by with the possession of police and olympic motorcade. It was on its way to the stadium for the opening ceremony that night. We got our room early avo slept, and then found ourselves in the busy streets of Vancouver, it was mental people everywhere and all bars and restaurants had lines out the door. We found ourselves in a 2 hour line in the rain to get into the Irish house, a half a block marquee bar set up in downtown vancouver. It was an awesome night, with all sorts of people mostly canadians teeing off the olympics in great style. It was an epic, expensive night. Our five days in vancouver were all fairly similar, with us wandering the city taking in the olympic atmosphere Which was incredible. The streets were shut and it was a huge display of canadian patriotism and passion for the games. You couldnt escape it and every night we found ourselves in lines for bars, and paying over the top cover charges and drink prices to take part in the festivities. But it was well worth it and even though we blew our budget I would do it again. The temperature was a bit of a shock compared to hawaii but it wasnt too bad, it got alot colder. And the warmth viewing the beautiful Vancouver women brought more than made up for it, it's true they are amazing. Valentines day was saved from being a totally gay affair with me and thorny by an aussie bird who I met who agreed to show us around town, including a trip to Stanly park a beautiful park on the harbour. It was great to look back at the city and hunt squirrels and we stumbled across a beluga whale enclosure which was epic, the whales were play with and talking to this seagull, it was crazy. I wasnt high and Im not crazy, look at the photo's on facebook. It was a good day, great to get out of the city and a good valentines night ensued.

We had these two typical aussie blokes in our room at the back packers, they were good value. They talked us into a night out our last night and we followed them half way across the city from bar to bar, I had to use my first aid skills from my resent course and help this guy who had his jaw broken by putting him in the recovery position and making sure he didn't swallow his tounge, and later that night I found myself stranded outside the University of British columbia confused and wanting a shower.

After the days events we needed to get out of the City, our options were whistler, and more crowds and olympic prices or head out the other way to meet up with some people we knew to the east. We chose the later and headed out to Kelowna, and the ski resort of big white. We had a friend from school Mike who said we could crash at his. He had a mean house in the village which had a great crew of aussies and Kiwi's in there and the hospitality was awesome. The whole town is on the mountain above the lower ski lifts. You walk out the fron door, strap on your board and off you go down the road to the lift. We hired and borrowed gear of Dave wilson and Si, who are also living there. The first day was characterised by mean powder filled tree runs. Having never done that before it was a bit tricky and I made friends with a few maple pines. But we soon had the hang of it and it was the best snow/boarding of my life. They also have night skiing and that night we hit the park and boarder cross under the lights which was also sick. We had some epic nights up there too with a 2am trek in the snow to find a hot tub turning up fruitless and cold, and an awesome house party to boot. The next day we got the T bar to the top, well we finally did after thorny and I murdered going double on it about 4 times. Once up there we hiked to the summit, had a beer and then spent the avo boarding the pow and hiking. it was a long day but sooo good. The trees up high are unrecognisible as they are all covered in snow, they look like statues or Ghosts they are quite something.

We kept moving and got the greyhound to Revelstoke another ohukune type town. It is here we met and stayed with blair, beth and leah who are canadians I me in NZ last year. We had an amazing dinner (if you havent guessed we arent stiking to a backpackers budget). Caught up with the old crew and the next day thorny, blair and I loaded up blairs ski doo and went up the trails for a day of ski dooing and boarding in places that arent usually boarded. I had never seen snow like it, it was dry powder up past your thigh. It took alot of getting used to but was awesome once you got it. We had the area to ourselves and the most amazing view of the rockies, which continued on the drive back to calgary, after maccas ofcourse.

We arrived in calgary late and next morning had a well overdue sleep in. We checked out the town, it has its merits, founded on the booming oil industry it grew quick. But it didn't seem to attractive or exciting. We saw similarities to hamilton. But we had a great meal with Beth and ellen, and the next day thorny and I buses out to Bowness creek for some ice skating. This was real fun and we were quick learners. zooming all over the ice, till i got too cocky tried a triple axel and hit my elbow. We finished the day off at the local pub watching Canada smoke Germany in the hockey, drank some beers, ate some Poutine (fries, cheese curd and gravy! so good on a cold day or on a hangover). Thorny and I kicked on to a bar with an 80's cover band with all the hair and drama of bon jovi it was a fun night and we meet some cool people.

Today was a lazy day, organising ourselves and finally finding time to write this and put photo's up. Tomorrow we will go to banff for the day night, then it will be a looong 14 hour bus trip back to Van to conclude the Olympic festivities and maybe even dabble in a game of rugby. After then, Vegas..so look foward to that update if we survive. Some guys just can't handle vegas.

Love Ace

Extremes

evans_ace — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 12:37:00 GMT

So here is the first update from the road, Twelve days in and it has been a trip of extremes, towns to countries hot to cold. This is what has happened.

On leaving the airport and mum and dad teary eyed (realising they love me) we took our seats at the back of cattle class with air NZ. We had a look at Fiji on the way, and then got on Jim Beams, we were offered water somewhere over tonga and on meeting Matt a big wave charger from Chch we got stuck into the beam more and had a fun flight. He told me of the boards he was taking, all over 6'8 and talked up a massive swell coming. So this made me and my single 6'2 feel a little inadequate, like I had just taken a piss next to Ron Jeremy at the urinal.

We taxi'd to the mighty Aqua Continental and arrived to our room which was what you would expect of a $50 a night twin share, but it was good on the bank account. We put a dent in the Duty free beam and then down to dukes for our first cocktail on the beach. Then after talking to nice young hawaiin lass we headed down to lulu's. On the way meeting a couple of guys from Tampa. They were good cats and he had a few of the local brews, finding out that one of them was the Kicker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I found out the NFL wasnt exactly like any given sunday, and I resisted the temptation to tap into Nick's mindset and discuss the technicalities of striking an ioval ball with your foot. We suned and swam the next day and met up with the boys agian this night we went to Mooses which has $1 drinks on tuesdays. This was good fun, however it ended up being alot like the set of a 50 cent music video as you will see by the photo's. Jeez can thouse yank girls dance, on the d-floor you here so much "beep beep beeping" as the reverse up onto and grind any guys on the dance floor. It was pretty cool. Two days in town and I was itching for a surf and wanted thorny to see pipe, so we organised a shutle and accomodation at a backpackers on the north shore by waimea bay. We arrived to a massive heavy 10-12 ft swell which was a little stormy, it was mental. Pipe was blowing up with only a few body boarders tackling it. See foto's> We hired bikes, some cool cruiser type ones and we used these to ride the 7 mile strip most the time to check all the spots. I had a few sessions over the 6 days at 4-6 ft pipe, and also surfed rickies, back yards and v-land at 3-4 ft, I surfed pebbles (inside waimea) it was breaking 8 ft out back, and then had a look at the shory. The waves are so fast and so powerful, I would never go back without boards to handle it.

The back packers was an interesting set up with all these little cabins between trees, it was pretty rough, the shower was so shit but your there to eat drink and surf so uit didn't matter too much. It did make m realise how luck I was to have had the white house in whiti though. We had an awesome crew at the place with a german, 2 assie and two norway guys. They were all mad as hell in their own way and we had a good crew to go surfing with. Ditching the ikes for the Germans rental car, a charge. We survived on beer and pizza andhad an interestg night when we wee told of a Bazillian paty in Haliewa (brzillians....my kryptonte). We got a few beers on us and jumped on the last bus running at 945pm. We arrived to a qiet town...what the hell. We th found aall with some peopleround, they were pcking up and it looed like an interesting crowd. We asked the "where is everyone, where is the party at now?" he told s it was pretty much over but it was a "great gatherig of christians from all over the island"....Skunked...realising or predicament that there was going to be now horizontal samba, noway too the lead nd told us to clasp ur hands together as he told the manhat we were christians from over the world and were eager to meet the community. There was methd to his madness having caught the st bus it was ahitchhike or 1.5 hour walk hme. He bought it and geerously gave the four of us a lift back, explaining the history of christianity in awaii on the way. We headed to a cafe for some ive music and cava with the hippiees.

Final Countdown

evans_ace — Mon, 1 Feb 2010 16:28:00 GMT

So here it is my final night in NZ, said goodbye to the cats, the canal (pulled a muscle on my final dive in), the house, the pub and now my car. The car of course was cleaned within an inch of its life as per Dad's instruction, so Paul who took it off my hands was well impressed.

Tonight I am having my last roast at Chris and leighs house (thank's leigh), dare I say it will be the last roast till I arrive on London and Nick will feel obliged to cook us one on arrival. Tomorrow morning it will be a 7am start to get to the airport in time for the 1030 am flight. The next stop, Honolulu with a accommodation set up at the Aqua continental, a few days in Waikiki then up to the North Shore to wet my stick (surfboard) in the 7 mile miracle including Pipeline and sunset. So there will be a story and pictures up from there in no time I am sure.

So airport tomorrow with mum and dad, they are already talking up the waterworks, but it will be a see you soon not a goodbye as I am sure they will come over in no time to visit their boys. Then a g'n't when the first drinks trolley comes around and me and Thorny will realise that it's finally happening.

Check out the map and stuff on this journal it's pretty cool and will be a good way to keep you all up to date with where I am at.

Cheers,

Ace